A ‘catastrophic failure’ has struck the Southern Cross international internet cable, says Labour’s Communications and IT spokesperson Clare Curran.

“Labour has learnt that a ‘catastrophic failure’ at Southern Cross’s Alexandria landing station occurred this morning due to an unauthorised and un-notified software change to their wavelength switching platform, which blew up.

“We understand that partial service has been restored by reinstating old circuits via New Zealand. Full restoration is still being worked on.

“This shows the Government’s inaction and disregard for our international infrastructure could have equally catastrophic consequences for New Zealand.

“This is a crisis for New Zealand. Without international connectivity, our financial system and a large percentage of business would be severely affected.

“The Government must address the issue of international connectivity with urgency and provide a full assessment of the risks New Zealand faces through software failures and natural events on the single cable.

“Issues of capacity and affordability of data pale into insignificance when you consider the havoc that could be wrecked by a significant outage. This is a matter of grave importance for New Zealand.”